There are a variety of
reasons to believe that childhood cancer may be linked to pesticides. The forms
of childhood cancer linked to exposure to pesticides by the child, or the parent,
or both include leukemia, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Wilms tumor, Ewing’s sarcoma,
and soft tissue sarcoma.

Carcinogenic pesticides
are still used

Many pesticides that have
been found to cause cancer are still in use. For example, a 1990 review reported
that 24 of the 51 pesticides found by the National Toxicology Program to be
carcinogenic in laboratory animals were still in use (1).
By 1997, 8 of 26 pesticides classified by the International Agency for Research
on Cancer to have "sufficient" evidence to be considered carcinogenic
were still registered for use on crops in the US (1).

Studies Show Links Between
Pesticide Use and Childhood Cancer

A Norwegian study of a
large population of rural residents found that pesticide use was associated
with cancer in young children of less then five years of age (2).
Participation in horticulture and pesticides use was also associated with Wilms
tumor, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma,
retinoblastoma (eye cancer),
and neuroblastoma.

Most research has focused
on the most common kinds of cancer in children – leukemia
and brain cancer.

Most of the studies of
pesticide exposure and leukemia show increased risks for children whose parents
used pesticides at home or worked at jobs that required pesticide use (1).
Some of the highest risks were when mothers were exposed to pesticides at work
(3).

For brain cancer, the majority
of relevant studies reported increased risk associated with pesticide exposure
(1). The highest risks were associated with
use of pesticides in the home or garden. Most studies reported that risks were
higher for prenatal exposure.

For non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma,
though there are fewer relevant studies, the results do suggest that pesticide
exposure may be linked to the disease in children (1).
One study found increased risk for children born to mothers who used pesticides
in the home and for children living him homes where extermination had been done
(3).